Impeached South Korean President Gets Additional 8 years to Prison Sentence

A South Korean court on Friday sentenced impeached former President Park Geun Hye to a total of eight years in prison on top of the 24 years she already faces, in a verdict that found her guilty of accepting slush funds from the nation’s intelligence agency and interfering in an election.

Separately, prosecuors sought 30 years in prison and a fine of 118.5 billion won ($104.3 million) for the former president as proceedings in an appeals trial for her graft case concluded the same day.

Friday’s Seoul Central District Court ruling consists of six-year imprisonment and 3.3 billion won in penalties over the slush funds from the National Intelligence Service, and two years in prison over election interference.

Prosecutors had sought 12 years in prison for taking slush funds from the intelligence agency.

In April, the Seoul court sentenced Park to 24 years in prison and slapped her with a fine of 18 billion won for bribery and other crimes she was convicted of committing while in office.

Prosecutors, who sought the longer 30-year prison term and larger fine, appealed the ruling to a higher court, while Park, who denied all charges while boycotting her trial since the fall of 2017, did not.

The Seoul High Court will deliver a ruling on the appeals case on Aug. 24.

In April, Park was convicted of conspiring with her longtime confidante Choi Soon Sil to take 7 billion won in bribes from Lotte Group by making the retail giant financially support a foundation effectively controlled by Choi.

The former president was also found guilty of receiving bribes from Samsung Electronics Co., South Korea’s largest conglomerate.

Park, 66, was ousted from power in March 2017 as the country’s Constitutional Court upheld her impeachment in parliament over a corruption and abuse-of-power scandal, paving the way for her arrest and eventual prosecution.

Park, the daughter of assassinated military ruler Park Chung Hee, was in the final year of her single five-year term as president when she was removed from office. She remains in detention following her arrest in March 2017. (NAN)